


I Told You This Would Be Fun

by DirigibleDetective



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Implied Relationships, SO FLUFFY
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-16
Updated: 2015-02-16
Packaged: 2018-03-13 08:40:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3375014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DirigibleDetective/pseuds/DirigibleDetective
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ellana finally convinces the Commander to move out of his drafty tower and in to her quarters, and uses it as an excuse to upgrade some things, to the enjoyment of some and the dismay of others.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Told You This Would Be Fun

**Author's Note:**

> First real piece of writing about Inquisition. I dunno. Just a thing.

“Maker’s Breath, woman! Did you buy the biggest bed in Orlais?” Cullen’s voice echoed up the stairwell from where he stood, straining against the enormous gilt headboard resting halfway up the set of stone stairs, while Blackwall tugged ineffectually at the opposite end.

“Not quite!” Ellana replied cheerfully from where she sat on the railing above. “You should have seen the Free Marches four-poster.” She idly twisted the end of her braid around her finger, watching the two men continue to struggle to move the last piece of her new bed in to her quarters. She’d finally convinced the commander to move out of his drafty tower and in here with her, which seemed like the perfect excuse to buy the ornate bed she’d been admiring in Val Royeaux for so long. She certainly wasn’t going to put a new bed in his rooms, just to let it collect snow and falling leaves.

“Damn you, Blackwall, are you even trying?” The commander heaved against the frame with his shoulder, his efforts rewarded as the gold-encrusted monstrosity shifted a few inches on the rough stone treads. Blackwall’s muttered reply was lost in his beard as he heaved from the upper end of the frame, gaining another handful of inches.

“What was that my dear?” Josie called sweetly from where she leaned alongside Ellana. “We can’t quite hear you from all the way up here.” Leliana giggled from her other side, where she was enjoying the break from her usual routine of reports, ravens and furtive whispers. She knew that Cullen’s frustration was more for show than anything else. He would have singlehandedly moved the entire Skyhold kitchens up to his Inquisitor’s rooms if she’d asked.

“I _said_ ,” Blackwall called dramatically, between heaves against the stubborn bed frame. “That I don’t understand…why the commander…didn’t simply…ask Bull!” With an enormous effort, the two men heaved together and slid the lion-emblazoned headboard a full stair-width upwards. The women cheered and clapped in encouragement, Josephine throwing in an uncharacteristically raucous whistle.

“I did ask Bull!” Cullen replied defensively. “He was so drunk he could barely stay upright in his chair. Apparently you guys took down another dragon yesterday, and he was still celebrating.”

Blackwall responded with a distressed noise, accompanied by another momentous heave. “So you pulled my sorry ass off my own bar stool and determined that I was sober enough to still be useful? Knew I should’ve started earlier.” He glanced over his shoulder and made another pained noise at how many stairs still remained between them and the end of this torture.

“That much closer to being done, Warden. Now keep pulling!” Cullen’s strained voice echoed from down the stairwell and the two men went back to work, syncing their efforts to gain ground more quickly.

“Oh you’re far from being done, Curly.” Varric sat on the floor, small bits of wood, sheets of paper, and a collection of mallets scattered around him. “This damned bed has so many pieces, the Orlesians sent instructions!” He looked up at the Inquisitor. “I told you the Dwarven bed would have been better. I could have put that together with one hand tied behind my back while reciting Orlesian love poetry.”

“Yes, and then we’d be hauling a stone monolith up the stairs, which would likely be the only thing worse than what we have now. I love you dearly, Ellana, but I think I’d have to draw the line there.” Cullen called back over the sound of wood sliding on rough stone.

Ellana leaned even farther over the edge of the stairwell, balancing herself precariously in order to plant a kiss on Cullen’s head as it came up below her. “I love you too, and I appreciate your suffering for the cause.” She smiled down at her commander and levered herself back up to the relative safety of the railing. “See Josie? I told you this would be fun.” The Inquisitor gently elbowed her friend, who smiled back though she had eyes only for the Warden drawing closer to the top of the stairs.

“ _Fun, she says, but this isn’t the fun she’s thinking about. Sheets, soft and smooth, still smelling like the Orlesian marketplace, hands even softer, a bed that doesn’t creak beneath a roof that doesn’t leak, the golden lion watching from the headboard as he-_ “

“Cole. How nice of you to join us.” Ellana interjected quickly amidst the choked laughter coming from every one of her friends. Blackwall’s loud guffaw was followed swiftly by his curses and Cullen’s shout of alarm as Blackwall lost his grip on the headboard, allowing it to slide its full weight in to Cullen struggling below. Ellana was preparing herself to leap from the railing to assist when Cassandra’s tall form appeared suddenly beside Cullen, taking some of the crushing weight against her own shoulder.

Blackwall muttered apologies as the three of them proceeded to push the frame the last few feet up the stairs and lean it against the wall. “I came to see what all the laughter and carrying on was about, only to have to rescue our glorious commander from a not-so-glorious end.” Cassandra offered as an explanation, folding her arms as the two men collapsed in tired, sweaty heaps on the cool stone floor. “Whose idea was this abomination of a bed anyway?”

“I’m not going to apologize for my bed again. Cullen told me to just pick one I liked, so I did.” Ellana stepped lightly over Blackwall’s gasping form, well attended by a still-giggling Josephine, to rest a small hand on Cullen’s chest, his thin shirt soaked through. Cassandra made a noise somewhere between amused and disgusted and departed back down the stairs.

“All right, all right, let me through you disgusting lovebirds. I think I’ve finally figured out how this thrice-damned bed goes together.” Varric shook the handful of assembly instruction in one sturdy fist as everyone shifted out of his way. “Not you kid,” he added, pointing to Cole where he sat atop the folded stack of bed hangings. “I’ll need another pair of hands.”

 

* * *

 

 

 

“No fair, testing out my new bed before me!” Ellana hopped lightly up on to the enormous pillowy mattress to sit beside Cullen, who’d thrown himself haphazardly on to its plush surface in exhaustion.

“I thought it was _our_ bed?” he replied, his voice muffled by the blankets in to which his face was pressed. The rest of their friends had just departed, after Varric had placed the last set of pegs in the frame and Josie had thrown on the last of the pillows. Cullen and Blackwall hadn't escaped as easily as they had hoped to, as Cole kept getting distracted by motes of dust or a particularly intriguing glint of light on various pieces of the bed, offering far less help than Varric had wanted.

“It is,” Ellana answered, leaning back to rest her head in the curve of Cullen’s back, idly unbraiding her hair as she stared up in to the folds of fabric draped above them. “I just thought that breaking in the new bed would be something we’d do… _together_.” She felt Cullen’s frame shake with gentle laughter, then purred contentedly as he slipped gently out from beneath her to sit astride her small frame.

“Well then. Wouldn’t want all that hard work to go to waste now, would we?” he teased, stripping off his sweat-dampened shirt and tossing it to the floor.

Ellana followed suit with an enthusiastic grin.


End file.
